Certain medical devices are known that are used in the atraumatic dilation into a patient, such as percutaneously accessing a patient's air passageway and dilating an opening thereto, and forming an ostomy in the tracheal wall. A tracheal tube is then inserted through the ostomy and into the trachea to establish a passageway for unobstructed air flow. To minimize trauma to the patient, it has been found desirable to initially incise only a small opening as an entrance, and thereafter to enlarge the opening with further dilation.
Sold by Cook Critical Care, Division of Cook Inc., Ellettsville, Ind., is the “Ciaglia Percutaneous Tracheostomy Introducer Set”, used for controlled percutaneous introduction of tracheostomy tubes. Sequentially sized dilators (from 12 french to 38 french) are advanced over a wire guide/guiding catheter system to facilitate gradual dilation of the tracheal entrance site to an appropriate size; one such dilator is shown in FIG. 1 and herein below described. The tracheostomy tube is placed by fitting the tube over the appropriate size dilator and advancing the tube into position. Each of the dilators includes an elongated linear shaft for manual gripping and manipulation, and is provided with a curved distal end concluding in a tapered tip that in use is coated with lubricating jelly, all to minimize trauma. First, the smallest dilator (12 french outer diameter) is first selected and placed over a guiding catheter and guide wire that extend through the opening until the tip is adjacent to the opening. Then the tapered tip is urged gently into the percutaneous incision and between adjacent ones of the trachea rings, and is gently withdrawn and reinserted to gradually widen the opening. The first dilator is then withdrawn and removed, and replaced by the next larger sized dilator and the procedure is repeated until the appropriate sized ostomy has been created.
It is desired to simplify the procedure used to create the ostomy and to shorten the length of time involved in its creation.